CHEMISTRYCHEMISTRYCHEMISTRY

http://wc.pima.edu/~carem/CHEMSKIL.html

http://ice.chem.umbc.edu/Chem351/study.html

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/chapman.htm (Physics)

STUDYING FOR EXAMINATIONS

If you have done your work carefully from day to day, reviewing for exams can actually be a pleasant experience. In any case, begin your systematic review for the final exam two weeks before exam week. For the midterm exams, complete all your original learning at least two days before the exam. This gives your subconscious mind a chance to digest the material and also it is insurance against visitors or an illness the day before the exam. Plan your work so that the day before the exam you will need to do no more than review the previously learned and understood material. In that case a couple of hours’ work the day before the exam will be all that is necessary. Since physics is a subject where clear thinking is especially important, remember the importance of a good night’s sleep.

There is no particular objection to cramming except that most of it is a waste of time. Cramming a set of formulas into your head an hour before the exam may raise your score, and in that sense may be justified, or it may merely confuse you. Certainly you will not be able to learn any significant amount of new material by cramming. Do not make the blunder of trying to memorize the tough spots, for unless you understand the basic ideas, your half-memorized effort will do you no good either on the exam or later. Probably the exam will concern the part of your half-learned material that you didn’t understand. If you do not have time to study all the material, then discard what you think is least important and forget about it. Learn the rest of the subject well. You may or may not be able to bluff your way through an essay question in economics but definitely you cannot do it in a physics problem. Either you can reason how to do the problem or you can’t. Hence, if time is too short for you to learn all the course, learn part of it cold not just ‘sort of’.

You may infer possible types of questions from previously given exams or quizzes or from the kinds of problems in the problem sets. Referring to your own exams will help for the final exam.

During your study, try to anticipate exam questions and plan what your answers should be. If you have a sufficiently good grasp of the material to be able to make up possible questions and then solve them without your notes, you are practically assured of an A. It puts you on the ‘other side’ of learning when you try to make up questions, This is a very effective kind of study, for in order to devise good questions you must have studied hr the fundamental ideas.

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damn you !@#$%